Eugene Flinn's South Dade Updates. My best method for keeping everyone up to date on important matters affecting our community.

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Great news. It is official. Palmetto Bay's Village Hall receives Platinum LEED certification.

Councilman Howard Tendrich advised me that the news is official –
Palmetto Bay Village Hall has officially received the LEED PLATINUM
certification.

I am thankful that this recognition has been finally been made
official.Many communities will be “Green”
with envy. This building sets the
standard for sustainability. It’s going to provide great savings to our
residents.

A significant portion of this Village Hall was paid through grants and
aid from our trips to Tallahassee and Washington so that construction could
begin.I believe this project was worth
the effort and will bring desirable economic impact to the area.

Be sure to review New Village Hall now open for business, by Gary Alan Ruse for background on the
original article concerning village Hall coming on line.I
really have to give credit to former Councilman Paul Neidhart for wanting to
put the village hall in that area. Not only will it provide great service for
residents, it will be a big economic generator for a part of the community that
needs a lift.

I have also posted a link to the minutes for the historic Special Council meeting of March 11, 2009, which provides background on the thought
process for selection of the site (worth the read).The resolution to authorize the Manager to
purchase the property for village hall passed 4 to 1 with VM Pariser opposed).

This has certainly been a long time in coming.I have been keeping fellow residents up to date
from past State of the Village addresses as well as e-mail updates.

I am pleased that we still have Council member Howard Tendich on the
village council.Howard has been a
long-time advocate for Palmetto Bay green code and working for environmental
sustainability

Congratulations residents of Palmetto Bay for supporting this vision of
sustainability. The confirmation of the LEED certification is the final step is
providing a nearly self-sustaining, and therefore, much more efficient, money
saving village hall.

I also direct you to HalFeldman’s blog coverage of the 2010 State of the Village, my eighth.As Hal stated, it was bittersweet.I enjoyed the comment he posted: ‘As the
evening wrapped, the outgoing mayor challenged everyone, "I and the
council leave you a house in order.I
expect you to keep it in good shape."’

I hope that this Platinum Village Hall is a reminder to the current and
future councils as to what can be achieved when a community is inclusive,
focuses on the positive and works together toward mutually established goals.

First, let me say that I am not anti-government. I believe that villages, counties, and states need to have certain protections in place from all bodies of governments, including federal, in order for sustainability and preservation. One only needs to look at the daily Food and Drug recalls and the assistance of our federal government after natural disasters, to realize that there is a need for government protection and assistance. However, for our small village to place 11 charter revisions, count them folks, 11, the same number as the constitutional amendments, on our ballot is ludicrous. For this election, given these village charter amendments, I will have to stand on the side of less government. In addition, the political dissension that is taking place on all sides simply proves the old Tip O'Neill saying, "All politics is local". Though Speaker O'Neill was inferring that politicians must be concerned with all issues that voters are concerned about. In this case, his words echo the sad point that local as well as federal election, breed needless contention.